


( t w o f o u r s i x )

by speckledfeathers



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Brotherhood, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Brothers, Gen, Nonbinary Character, One Shot, Short, Short One Shot, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Siblings, Sneaking Out, marijuana mention, nonbinary klaus, two four six trio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26263858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speckledfeathers/pseuds/speckledfeathers
Summary: sometimes, the hargeeves siblings just need to get some fresh air. here's a little story of diego, ben, and klaus when they were 14.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Diego Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	( t w o f o u r s i x )

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this over a year ago but never posted it. so i decided to now because why not!

_“Are you guys sure about this?”_

_“Shh! Shut up Klaus, or we’ll get caught!”_

_“Sorry, sorry--”_

Klaus tried to whisper, Diego could tell he was trying. But then he heard an awkward stumble and a soft groan followed by another apology and he couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Ben was good at the sneaking but Klaus? It was laughable how clumsy he was.

By some miracle, the three of them made it out without disturbing anyone. Diego turned back to the house as they crossed the street to see if any lights had been turned on, but there was only the one-- Reggie’s office. Sometimes he wondered if their dad ever slept. He had a feeling he didn’t, that he was stubborn enough to just tell fatigue to fuck off and leave him alone and it would listen. What a bastard.

“See look, we made it just fine!” Klaus jumped wholeheartedly onto the sidewalk once they made it across, arms spread out triumphantly when he landed. There was a smile plastered across his face as he looked up at the streetlight above him, eyes squinted. “Told you we would make it!”

“No thanks to you!” Diego scoffed, giving Klaus the stink eye as his brother blinded himself for no reason. “You should get some tips from Ben-- I barely even knew he was there. And you were the one who almost didn’t want to come, Klaus!”

Off to his other side, Ben smiled. But he kept his mouth shut.

“Alright, c’mon. We’re wasting time out here. The park is that way.” He pointed to the left and started down the sidewalk, assuming his brothers would follow.

“Wait-- weren’t we going to bring some food?” Ben piped up from behind him.

“I have some weed!”

“That’s not food, Klaus.”

Diego smirked, listening to them bicker. He hadn’t told them yet but he managed to convince Mom to give him a few cookies that she was saving for tomorrow. Truthfully, it didn’t take much to convince her. They only had one each but he felt pretty proud. And he would save the surprise for when they got there.

The rest of the walk was pretty quiet for all three of them. Diego kept an eye out, since three 14 year old kids walking down the street would seem a little strange at this time of night. Before he left he slipped two of his smaller knives into his boots, just in case. They would be fine. He would make sure they would be fine. 

Klaus got distracted a few times, pausing to look across the street into a store window or crouch down at a certain point on the sidewalk. Diego heard Ben utter a soft _“Klaus?”_ from behind him and stopped to see what was going on, mirroring Ben a few feet away. Klaus had his hand held out in front of him for a few moments and then smiled before standing up.

“What were you doing?” Ben asked

Klaus’ smile dropped and his expression changed, twisting into embarrassment. “Nothing.” With his head hung he pushed passed Ben and then Diego, taking lead and saying nothing for the rest of the walk. Diego and Ben exchanged a concerned glance before following him, but they didn’t try and get Klaus to talk. That always just seemed to make things worse.

Soon after, they were able to turn away off the sidewalk and start carefully making their way through the grass and trees. As they got farther from the streetlights they had to let their eyes adjust to the moonlight. At one point Diego felt Ben gently grab onto one of his shirt sleeves so he wouldn’t get lost. 

Klaus seemed to know exactly where he was going, even though they hadn’t picked a specific place to stop and it was practically pitch dark. Diego stayed a few steps behind him and they weaved easily around everything in their path-- rocks, bushes, trees, the occasional puddle. It was weird how Klaus got into these modes-- like a switch flipped and he went from the kid who tripped over every flat surface in the house to the one who knew the forest like the back of his hand. 

“How about here?” Klaus stopped and Diego almost ran into him, and in turn Ben let out a gasp before smacking head first into Diego.

“Ow!” Ben stumbled back and regained his balance, then apologized.

Diego let out a snort of laughter and then moved on, not even phased by being run into. He took a few steps closer to Klaus and then took a look around. The place was nice-- a small haphazard circle of trees that almost created a little ‘room’ cut off from the rest of the park. It was like they had their own little spot, just for them, and it felt nice. Diego smiled, his eyes finally adjusting to the low light. “Yeah this is perfect. How did you find this place?”

Klaus just shrugged, looking down at his feet as he kicked a small rock away from him. “I didn’t mean to. Just kinda stumbled into it.”

Diego scoffed, but didn’t ask anything further. His brother couldn’t be explained, but that was just how he was. Their dad did awful things to Klaus when he ended up doing something that didn’t make sense. He didn’t know what those awful things were or why Reggie seemed interested in what Klaus could see or do or whatever, even more than the rest of them, but he didn’t need to know. And he didn’t need to bother Klaus about it.

With a dramatic sigh of relief, Diego lowered himself onto the grass and spread out flat on his back. They could see a good amount of stars out here, even with the city closeby. And it was a beautiful night. Quiet, peaceful. And it always felt good to get out of the house. Even with its multiple stories, it was easy to feel stifled in there. He knew the rest of his siblings felt it too. Except maybe Luther. But that came as no surprise, being dad’s favorite and all.

Klaus and Ben followed Diego onto the ground, flattening out on either side of him. He swore he could feel the stress and the tension melt away from the three of them as they sat there. They had definitely needed this.

“So what do you guys wanna talk about?” Klaus piped up.

“Do we have to talk?” Diego side-eyed him.

“No, I guess not. But we can talk about whatever we want! There’s no creepy dads or stupid brothers around!”

“Do you mean Luther?” Ben asked slyly.

“Duh, who else would I mean?” Klaus replied, throwing his arms up in the air as he spoke to emphasize his point. “I swear he patrols the hallways at night just to make sure we’re all actually sleeping.”

“Are you sure those aren’t just ghosts you’re hearing in the hallways, Klaus?”

A beat of silence. “Okay no, I’m not sure. But whatever, you both know Luther likes being in charge waaaay too much. I feel like he’s always one second away from beating me up.”

As Diego listened he closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh air. He kept silent but he smirked, probably enjoying the Luther slander just a bit too much.

 _“Psst, Diego--”_ Klaus whispered into his ear. Or whatever his version of a whisper was.

Diego jumped, eyes flicking open in surprise. “Shit, Klaus!” He sat up, turning to give his idiot brother an offensive look. “What? What is it?”

Klaus was laughing too hard to answer for a moment, but after he sucked in a few staggered breaths he sat up as well. “Nothing. You were just being really quiet.”

“Why did I even bring you? Can’t get a second of silence with you two around.” Diego teased with a roll of his eyes. And then he remembered. “Oh wait! I forgot! I brought these--” He pulled out the three cookies, still somehow intact, from his jacket pocket and passed them out.

Ben broke off a chunk and started munching on it in typical Ben fashion. “Thanks, Diego!” He smiled through a mouthful of chocolatey chip goodness.

Before Diego even had a chance to bite into his, Klaus’ was gone. “How many joints did you smoke before we got here?”

Klaus snorted. “Only one. But I didn’t eat much dinner, so I was hungry.”

“Only one, huh? Is that why you brought some with you?”

“No. I just forgot to take it out of my pocket. Why, you wanna try?”

“No thanks.” Diego shook his head. “I’m just surprised you aren’t smoking it right now.”

“He did his makeup before we left.” Ben piped up from his other side. “He doesn’t wanna mess up his lipstick.”

Diego turned back to Klaus, who nodded in confirmation. He squinted in the pale light, trying to see whatever Klaus had done to himself, but he couldn’t see anything. And he hadn’t noticed anything before. He shrugged. “Whatever, dude. I was just curious.”

“When you look this fabulous, you can’t mess it up.” Klaus posed where he sat, a few loose curls falling in front of his eyes.

The three of them laughed together, falling back onto the grass and staring up at the sky.

After their giggles died down, Ben started up the conversation again. “Do you guys think we’re gonna be crime-fighters forever?”

Klaus groaned. “Shit, I hope not.”

Diego shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t wanna stay here forever, but fighting is the one thing I’m good at.” He wasn’t being groomed to lead like Luther, and he wasn’t brilliantly smart like Ben. But it felt good to help people.

“All the girls you save will swoon over you, Diego.” Klaus teased. “Maybe someday you’ll actually manage to get a girlfriend.”

“Shut up.” Diego lightly punched his brother’s arm, and Klaus smacked his hand away. “For now I got enough to worry about-- trying to keep you two idiots safe.”

It fell silent after that. Diego did everything he could to watch out for Klaus and Ben, but in that house only one person had real power-- Reginald. Even Luther had to listen to that prick they called a father. And most of the time there wasn’t much Diego could do to protect them, but he tried. Damn, if he didn’t try.

“Someday I bet we’ll get out of that house.” Ben said, his voice filled with tentative hope. “We’ll still be friends when that happens, right?”

Diego nodded. “Course we will. We’re family.”

Klaus was oddly quiet, but Diego didn’t press him, even when he glanced to the left and saw his brother doing his best to wipe away a few tears without smudging the smokey makeup around his eyes. Oh, there’s the makeup, now he saw it! It made him smile, remembering the first time Klaus snuck away from Grace’s room with a few different colored things he immediately caked onto his face. Sometimes it was little things that you remembered the best.

Diego glanced to his other side at Ben, who simply turned and smiled back.

These idiots wouldn’t ever get away from him. Not if had anything to do with it. But for now, all they had to do was enjoy the park and the stars and try to forget what was waiting for them back at home.

**Author's Note:**

> yes-- in that one paragraph klaus was indeed petting a ghost cat. you're welcome.


End file.
